Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-10-24

carrying our auimosities with us? Who
would want to confront his God, against
whom we have all done meaner things
than anybody has ever done against
Us, carrying old grudges? How csn we
expect His forgiveness for the greater
when we are not willing to forgive others
the less? Napoleon was encouraged to
undertake the crossing OF the Alps be-
cause Charlemagne had previously crossed
them. And all this rugged path of for
giveness bears the bleeding footsteps of
Him who conquered through suffering,
and we ought to be willing to follow. On
the night OF our departure from this life
into the next, our one plea will have to
be for mercy, and it will have to be Of
fered in the presence of Him who has
said: "lf you forgive not men their tres
passes neither will your Heavenly Father
forgive your trespasses." What sorry
plight il We stand there hating this one,
and hating that one, and wishing this one
damage, and wishing some one else
calamity, and we ourselves needing for
giveness for ten thousand times ten
thousand obliquities of heart and life.
When our last hour comes, we want it TO
find US all right. Hardly anything affects
me SO much in the uncovering of ancient
Pompeii as the account of the soldier who,
after the city had for many centuries been
covered with. the ashes and scoriS of
Vesuvius, was found standing in his
place
ON GUARD,
hand On spear and helmet on head. 9th
ers fed at the awful encouragement, but
the explorer, seventeen hundred years af-
70 fha hnd ~ hot hra oil
in right position. And il will be grand
thing II, when our last moment comes,
we are found in right position toward the
world, as we'll as in the right position to-
ward God, on guard and unaffrighted by
the ashes from the mountain of death. 1
do not suppose that am any more of .
to you that l would not dare to sleep to-
night ii there were any being in ali the
earth with whom 1 would not gladly
shake hands, lest, during the night hours,
my spirit dismissed to other realms,
should, because OF my unforgiving spirit,
be denied divine forgiveness.
"But," says some woman, "there Is q
horrid creature that has so injured me
that rather than make up with her would
die first" Well, sister, you may take
your choice-for one or the other it will
be-your complete pardon Of her or Gods
eternal Punishment Of you. "But," says
some man, "thst fellow who cheated me
out of those goods, or damaged my bust
ness credit. or started that lie about me
| in the newspapers, or by his perfidy broke
| up my domestic happiness, forgive him l
can not, forgive him I will not" Well,
brothel, take your choice. You will
| never be at peace with God till you are at
peace with man. Feeling as you now do,
| you would not get SO near the harbor OF
heaven as TO see the lightship. Better
leave that man with God who said:
"Vengespce is mine, will repay" You
may say: Twill
MAKE HIM SWEAT
| for that yet, will make him squirm,
| mean to pursue hun to the DEATH" but
you are damaging yourself more than you
| damage him, and you are making heaven
for your own soul an impossibility. II he
will not be reconclle1 to you, be recon.
ciled to him. In five or six hours it will
| be shutdown. The dahIiss will bloom
| against the western sky. Somewhere be-
tween this and that take shovel and
! bury the old quarrel ct least six feet deep
"Let not the sun go down upon your
| wrath
"But," you say, 81 have more than l
| can bear; too much is put upon me and
/ am not to blame if l am somewhat re-
vengeful and uurelenting." Then think
Of the little child ct the moving of some
goods from store. The father was put
ting some rolls of goods on the child's
arm, package after package, and some
one said: "That child is being overloaded
and so much ought not to be put upon
her," when the child responded "Father
knows how much 1 can carry" and God,
our Father, will not allow too
much imposi ion on his chill
dren. In the day of eternity
it will be found that you had not one an
noyance too many, not one eXaspe, alton
too many, not one outrage too many.
Your heavenly Father knows how much
you Can carry.
Again: We ought not to allow the pas
| sage OF the sunset hour before the dis
missal Of ell our affronts, because we
msy associate the sublimest action of
the soul with the sublimest specta-
Gle in nature. It is most delightsome
thing to have our personal experiences
allied with certain objects. There is e
tree or river bank where God first an
sWered your prayer. You will never pass
that place or think of that place without
thinking of the glorious communion
There was some gate, or some room, or
some garden walk, where you were aft
anced with the companion who has been
your Chief joy inIlife. You never speak
OF that place but with smile. Some of
you have pleasant memories connected
with
THE EVENING STAR,
or the moon In its first quarter, or with
the sunrise, because you saw it just as
you were arriving ct narbor after a
tempestuous voyage. Forever and for
ever, o hearer, associate the sunset with
your magnanimous, out and out, I'M
limited remuneration of all hatreds and
forgiveness Of all foes. admit it is the
most difficult of all graces to practice,
and at the start you may make com
plete failure, but keep on in the attempt
TO practice it. Shakespeare wrote ten
plays before he reached Hamlet, and
seventeen plays before he reached Mer-
chant of Venice, and twenty-eight plays
before he reached Macbeth. And gradu-
8llv Won will come from the easier pracas